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This blog is my attempt at second shot - precision heritage photography - and my search for little nuggets of history and heritage locally and overseas. When free, I can be found wandering along the streets and elsewhere, trying to uncover their geographical past.

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Oct 7, 2009

The FOYERs were cordially invited to NHB's "exclusive celebratory private party" - By the Light of the Lanterns - at Hua Song Museum. I have blogged about the museum tour; part 2 is about the party. It's party time!
I was expecting to see an audience of old fogies or working professionals with their kids. I had the impression the event was mid-autumn family night for some NHB department. Astounded I was, when the audience turned out to comprise mainly young people.

(Coincidentally my colleague's wife was one of the attendees and she was from the group of omy.sg bloggers invited by NHB's youth and social media outreach initiative to the event. Do check out their fun and wacky coverage and how their invitation differs from the FOYERs'. NHB certainly knows how to reuse, recycle and reduce.)

The party would be incomplete without some kind of mooncake appreciation and I signed up knowing there would be free mooncakes to go around. But I did not expect a mooncake galore. There was this table showcasing various snowskin mooncakes that were nicely wrapped up. I reckoned it was a display table for some vendor to clear their stocks one day before the festival and thought why bother, I'm here for free things. I approached only when I saw mooncakes for sampling. When I went back after my second helping of durian mooncake, the lady laughed. I had became her regular customer.

I did not shy away from the two round tables where mooncakes from assorted brands were unboxed for sampling. In fact visitors pounced on the mooncakes before the start of the buffet dinner. Of course I joined in their predatory actions. The mooncakes were divided into two groups - non-halal and halal - even though I don't remember seeing any Muslim visitor. Buffet was simple fare and I did not even eat the kueh. I was too engrossed in other activities.

The organizers were considerate enough to have Chinese tea accompany the mooncakes, for fear of some people choking on these delectable round pastries. I was one of those people. In my eagerness to absorb more free things, I did not realize the viscosity increasing - in my mouth. Thanks to the Ti Kuan Yin, I managed to savour more free things mooncakes. On parade were Longjing Green Tea, Chrysanthemum Pu-Erh Tea and even Jasmine Tea.

I met fellow blogger PY at the party and together we spent much time admiring the lanterns indoors. Proof that mooncakes were in over abundance, the organizers put up Chinese lantern riddles and winners walk away with free mooncakes. Like PY, I found the riddles pretty challenging. But unlike PY, I won myself nothing while she breezed through two of them.

To show you the excruciating pain I went through cracking my head over the riddles, here is one of them. Simple right? But what is the answer, dear folks?

铅笔姓什么?

The goodie bag is a must-grab for any event. The Hua Song party was no exception. However, the organizers did not distribute the goodie bags to the participants. To their credit, they did distribute lanterns when it was time to go outdoors, but I found them a little childish; besides I was determined not to score a "kosong" for the lantern riddles, so we did not spend much time outdoors. Luckily the goodie bags were consolidated on a table. With most of the folks out, I took one and put in my bag. Self service.

The goodie bag was more like plastic bag. A very creative way to package the goodies indeed. But do not let the plastic cover fool you.

So the bag was rich in goodies. If you look at the items arranged "stripped weapon" style, there was a small mooncake in the group of edible and non-edible things. How cute and consoling!